Domain vs. Subdomain Question

Hey, I'm just curious about how keywords in subdomains compare to the same keyword in a normal domain...

For example if my keyword was "dog training", could I just create a subdomain -- "dogtraining.rootdomain.com" and have it rank just as well as it would if I were to create a domain like "dogtraining.com"?

Google is trying to treat subdomains like folders now so subdomain will not rank as well as the domain example- even domain name does not give as much SEO weight as many people think but it is important for branding - for SEO biggest weight comes from backlinks with keyword in anchor text

Google is trying to treat subdomains like folders now so subdomain will not rank as well as the domain example- even domain name does not give as much SEO weight as many people think but it is important for branding - for SEO biggest weight comes from backlinks with keyword in anchor text

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Thanks for that. Is there a huge difference between .com's and .info's?

Thanks for that. Is there a huge difference between .com's and .info's?

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For SEO there is debate about whether or not Google treats domain extensions differently - I do not think it does so .info can rank as well as .com if it has the same content, backlinks, age, etc

For branding there can be a big difference - .info's have a bad reputation because there are too many spammy .info domains - .com's have the highest reputation - if you cannot get the right name with a .com extension then you have to look at branding when choosing between a .com with a different domain name or the same name with a different extension

Google treats subdomains the same as folders i.e. dogtraining.site.c0m is the same as site.c0m/dogtraining

For that reason it's generally better to just create a new folder.

At one point Google did give a lot of preference to subdomains and big sites like Ebay were able to rank for brand name terms and short tail keywords just by adding a subdomain now to their very strong domain.

- Sadly this doesn't work to well anymore as too many people took advantage of it and Google got annoyed. To make it work you would need to be building a seriously strong brand like about or ebay and that would take a long time.

In my experience Google still does put a lot of weight on the keywords in the domain, and a little more weight if they are at the start of the domain i.e. dogtrainingguide.c0m is better than easydogtraining.c0m - although if you have a good enough link building campaign you shouldn't have to worry about this too much.

I would focus on getting the keyword in the domain and then working from there... be careful not to repeat the keyword in the complete url however as this could work against you e.g. dogtraining.c0m/dogtrainingtips would probably work against you. dogtraining.c0m/tips would be must better.

Google treats subdomains the same as folders i.e. dogtraining.site.c0m is the same as site.c0m/dogtraining

For that reason it's generally better to just create a new folder.

At one point Google did give a lot of preference to subdomains and big sites like Ebay were able to rank for brand name terms and short tail keywords just by adding a subdomain now to their very strong domain.

- Sadly this doesn't work to well anymore as too many people took advantage of it and Google got annoyed. To make it work you would need to be building a seriously strong brand like about or ebay and that would take a long time.

In my experience Google still does put a lot of weight on the keywords in the domain, and a little more weight if they are at the start of the domain i.e. dogtrainingguide.c0m is better than easydogtraining.c0m - although if you have a good enough link building campaign you shouldn't have to worry about this too much.

I would focus on getting the keyword in the domain and then working from there... be careful not to repeat the keyword in the complete url however as this could work against you e.g. dogtraining.c0m/dogtrainingtips would probably work against you. dogtraining.c0m/tips would be must better.

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Does it matter how many backlinks I build in a day? For instance, can I try and build like 50-100 backlinks a day or is that too much?

Does it matter how many backlinks I build in a day? For instance, can I try and build like 50-100 backlinks a day or is that too much?

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Build links at a rate that is sustainable for your site so Google thinks it is natural - if you build many links for a couple of days and stop Google could think it is link spam - build at a steady rate that you can maintain

Thanks a bunch for the useful information. One more question -- is there a way to find out how you're ranking in google, or do you actually have to browse through the google pages and search for your site that's listed for your keyword?

Thanks a bunch for the useful information. One more question -- is there a way to find out how you're ranking in google, or do you actually have to browse through the google pages and search for your site that's listed for your keyword?

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There are many tools - for example Seobook.com has a free Firefox extension for checking search engine rank - Google Webmaster will tell your rank for top searches - Semrush.com will tell if you rank in the top for any keywords

they making meaning words like subdomain....inthis case we dont buy more domains simply buy one meaningless word then promote your all affiliate products with only one domain.....make every product as a subdomain with main targetted keyword it will help you in ppc also

I have both domains with subdomains and those without. I can rank just fine with subdomains, but it is important to build good inbound deep links to them. The best use of subdomains is if you are trying to build a 'brand' for your site. If you have a a lot of subcategories it can also help give your site a little cleaner look and target sub-niches a little better. Just my opinion. As far as .info's. I have a major site as a .info, it is listed in the major directories and ranks just fine.

Subdomains are treated as a separate site from the domain, so they have to earn their own place in the rankings. This means they don't inherit any trust from the domain. They have to get inbound links just like a regular new domain would. This is easier than for a subdirectory of a domain, as many directories don't allow deep links.

On the other hand, a subdirectory inherits trust and link juice from the parent domain.

The actual words in the subdomain or subdirectory are not important. The same words in an inbound link to that subdomain or subdirectory are what make them look valuable. Hence makemoneyfast.domain.com on its own (or make_money_fast) does not appear to Google as "make money fast" - but its Title tag and body contents have those three words, as does the anchor text in inbound links. Google is trying to regard underscores as hyphens (which are spaces), but it is safer to use hyphens to separate multiple words in domain names, subdirectories or subdomains.

.info isn't any better worse than a .com if both were brand new and bought on the same day. In general, .coms have been around for many years (20?) and there are more of them than .infos, so the latter seem less valuable for ranking.

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